Talks - It Was All Finished Long Ago

It Was All Finished Long Ago

It Was All Finished Long Ago

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
, 2010-07-12

It has been accomplished long ago -- Eppavo mudintha kariyam. The major ebbs and flows of life are already determined. Sadhana and tapas required to step beyond prarabdha karmas. In a certain state one can see patterns, even for future lives, reading karma that's there. Future discoveries exist now. Relax into already created positive states of mind. Knowledge is discovered and rediscovered. Be a witness, do what is necessary, respond to inner orders.

Unedited Transcript:

Good morning.

Starting with quote from yesterday's "Merging With Siva" lesson. Gurudeva's talking about after realization.

"You look at the world from the inside out. You look at people from the inside out. You look at a person, and immediately you see how they came along through life. You look at their face, and you see what their mother looks like. You look into their subconscious mind; you see what their home looked like. You see what they were like when they were ten years old, fourteen, twenty, twenty-five years old; now they are thirty. And at the same time you are seeing what they are going to look like when they are forty years old, and so forth. You see the whole sequence, all now. Then you really know, after that deep samadhi, that the mind, in all phases of manifestation, was all finished long ago. It's already complete.

"Before that, you try to believe in that concept. And it's a vast concept to believe in, because at certain times, when awareness is flowing in the external areas of the mind, it certainly doesn't look that way at all. Our perspective is limited. "

Reminds me of a story; I, we can get it in the Guru Parampara book somehow. But, Gurudeva was telling me long long ago when he was counseling on Sacramento Street, he was counseling this man. And one of the reasons Gurudeva ended up counseling, he says. It was a church near the Golden Gate Bridge. So, people in route to the Golden Gate Bridge, to jump off, would sometimes stop by. It's really true, a true story.

So, anyway, he was talking to this man and seeing into his subconscious mind and started talking about this woman who was attached to the man and describing her and this and that. Turned out to be the man's girlfriend and not his wife. So, you have to be careful when you can see into someone's mind. Anyway, that's an interesting story.

So, the idea here is that: "It was all finished long ago." That's the phrase that stood out when I read that lesson yesterday. Remembered one of, it's one of the four mahavakayam of Chellapaswami we've translated: "It has been accomplished long ago." Try the Tamil: "Eppavo mudintha kariyam." That's the Tamil.

So, I was asked on the Innersearch by one of the participants about this mahavakayam: "Oh what does this mahavakayam mean?" It means a number of things so we, made me recall that question. I answered it on the Innersearch in a certain way. I was looking through Gurudeva's teachings to see a few different ways that Gurudeva interprets this. It just doesn't mean one thing. It means a couple, it can be applied in a number of different ways.

So, this is one of the ways. And Patanjali also has a verse on this same idea, that through certain meditation practices, knowledge of past and future, knowledge of your past and future or someone's past and future, can be acquired. So, that's a way in which "It's all finished long ago," this same concept is present in astrology. You know, the future. If you can read someone's chart you can see it in their astrology, palmistry -- the same thing. That what's going to, the major ebbs and flows of our life is already determined. It's in our karma that we will experience in this life -- prarabdha karma. And to step beyond that requires a lot of sadhana and tapas. Otherwise we just go through that per the astrology.

One of the advantages of monastic life, it's the, properly used, you can go through it faster; you still go through it. Then you can keep going into something that would have not happened till a future life. You can move through your karmic cycles more quickly but it, it's still there. Very difficult to get rid of it; it requires tapas -- serious austerity is what's needed to actually change the karma that we would be going through in this or a future life but it can be eliminated. The idea of tapas is it burns it; it heats it to the point where it, it won't manifest, it won't sprout.

But that's one way, for general patterns even patterns for future lives can be seen when you're in a certain state as Gurudeva is explaining that he was able to get into that state. You can see the patterns of a person's live: past, present and future. Because it's the karma, present and future, is reading the karma that's there.

There's one in "Saiva Dharma Shastras" about Kadavul:

"Kadavul is not a public temple, but a shrine for monastics and members, the spiritual nucleus of our fellowship. One day in the distant future, it was revealed to me in psychic vision Kadavul will stand alone as a colorfully painted Agamic temple with a tall vimanam and raja gopura entrance. In this vision, the Aadheenam was relocated closer to Iraivan."

Fortunately,y Gurudeva says "distant future" so it's not on our [laughs] not on our to do list yet. Kind of busy building Iraivan for a while. But the reason I bring it up isn't, you know, get it on our to do list but just to show that something like that can be seen. "It was all finished long ago." So Gurudeva's able to see the future of Kadavul. From a certain perspective you can see what will happen to Kadavul in the future.

And, these things tend to happen. It's amazing. Just fall right into the pattern that's there.

That's the second idea is: Knowledge of certain future conditions. So, that's in a future condition. The state of Kadavul Temple in the future is able to be known from a certain perspective. It's all finished long ago. Future state of Kadavul.

Here's another one.

"When we are subconsciously conscious that we are a superconscious being, and the subconscious mind has accepted the new programming that energy, willpower and awareness are one and the same thing, when the subconscious mind has accepted the fact that the mind was all finished long ago in all its phases of manifestation, from the refined to the gross -- then the subconscious begins working as a pure channel, so to speak, for superconsciousness. Awareness can then flow in a very positive, in a very direct, way."

This is the idea that the mind itself was all finished long ago which means more then it seems to. It means that future discoveries exist now. Well, everything that we will know in the future exists in the present. It's just no one's found it yet. But it's all there. All the states of mind that we'll experience throughout the rest of our life exists. We're not creating anything new, we're just moving to them if we haven't experienced them before. The only thing new is our awareness didn't go there before. It doesn't get created by us; it's always there. So, Gurudeva's pointing out: When you realize that you have more control over awareness. Positive states of mind we want to be in, you don't have to create them by thinking about them. They're already there, you just relax into them. You move awareness a little bit that way, perhaps. It's a different idea.

I know some individuals, when they start to meditate, you know, they're really, really working hard. You know: "I'm going to see the inner light." It's as if they're creating the inner light by the effort to see it. Whereas, the other way around is better. It's there; you just aren't relaxed enough to find it. Relax! Quiet the mind! It's right there. Just little bit to the left, a little bit to the right of where you are. Takes a small adjustment, you know. It doesn't take a lot of energy.

That's the third idea which is: All areas of mind exist, even future inventions, exist in the present.

Here's an interesting one from "Cognizantability:"

"It was when we were..." It's referring to "Cognizantability."

" It was when we were finishing the lexicon of "Dancing with Siva" in 1993, forty-four years after the aphorisms of Cognizantability were unfolded, that, surprisingly we found that the five states of mind, which were so unexpectedly unfolded in 1950, have names in the Sanskrit language, which I had no knowledge of then. The various definitions of mind and consciousness which form the essence of the aphorisms were, in a way, retrofitted with the assistance of eminent contemporary Indian scholars who knew the Sanskrit nomenclature and made connections between the traditional terms and the subsuperconscious messages of so many decades ago." (That Gurudeva had received.)

Then he goes the conscious mind and the Sanskrit words. I won't read them cause it's hard to grasp unless you're looking at it.

"My satguru was truly right when he so often said, 'There is nothing new. It was all finished long ago.'"

This one is the idea that knowledge about the mind exists, is discovered, and then later on the same knowledge is rediscovered. And later on, the same knowledge is rediscovered. It's, keeps getting discovered and forgotten and discovered and forgotten and what can be different, of course, is the terminology. If you don't study the terminology carefully you won't see that it's the same information. The terminology can be totally different. But, if you study it then you see that the same knowledge about the mind, inner and outer, is constantly being discovered and rediscovered. That was number four.

Number five is from Yogaswami:

"Yogaswami worked intuitively, responding to those who came according to inner orders. In explaining this process, he once said, 'I do nothing. I can do nothing. Everything you see, that is done by what comes from within.' Another time he said: 'When you come here, what will happen was settled long ago. We go through it; you bring it, but it all happened long ago. Sit and be a witness.' Swami explained the process: 'When you are pure, you live like water on a lotus leaf. Do what is necessary, what comes to you to do, then go on to the next inner order you receive, and then to the next that comes.'"

From Yogaswami's point of view, when he was giving advice to someone, it happened long ago. That event was going to happen. And he knew it was going to happen. That's the idea of: Future events can be known. Or, events that happen were determined to be happening. Not just random chance.

So that stretches the mind doesn't it. That's just a few; I'm sure we could find more in Gurudeva's teachings but only so much time to prepare for a talk. So that's why when someone asks me: "What does it mean?" you know, it's hard to... What doesn't it mean? You know, might be a better if I could figure out that answer. It doesn't mean this. But it has so many meaning that it's a wonderful, wonderful teaching to reflect upon.